First Meetings
by PalmerBlake
Summary: What if Natasha had met the Avengers before but they just didn't recognize her in the movie? It makes sense when you read it.


**Okay so this idea came to me on a particularly boring journey in a car. I figured since in the comics Natasha was actually born in 1928 that she would have a lot of time to have already met the members of the Avengers. So here is Natasha meeting the Avengers (bar Thor because I couldn't think of time slot for that) or seeing them for the first time although the meetings are so short, forgettable or she looks different that they all forgot about them and do not recognise her in the films.**

**Captain America (Steve Rogers):**

Natalia was fourteen years old when she first saw him, the American super soldier. She was on her third mission in Germany, thirteenth overall. The Red Room had sent her to gather Intel on Johann Schmidt; she was there to find out the nature of the weapons they knew he was creating. The mission had gone well; Natalia had discovered that Johann was using something called the Cosmic Cube to create weapons that could incinerate people. She had been exiting the base when she was spotted by a guard. The guard clearly had reservations about her age and gender. He pointed one of the cosmic weapons at her and radioed in half a dozen other guards. Natalia couldn't risk being shot by one of the weapons considering it would result in her being a pile of ash, so she let the guards cuff her arms and lead her to a dark but clean white cell which happened to be nicer than her dormitory back at the Red Room.

It was there that she met him, Captain America; she had been briefed on the possibility of bumping into him on her missions. She wasn't scared, he was a saint, and there was no way in hell would he hurt her. So when one of his allies opened her cell door before rushing off to do the same with the other prisoner's cells she had simply seen it as a great convenience and walked out whilst calculating the quickest way to get off the base and get in contact with the Red Room.

She had been weaving her way through the frantic, recently freed prisoners and towards the door when the massive man in the ridiculous costume, which was nearly as tight as her own and was red, white and blue, stepped in her way.

She looked up only to see the man staring at her with confusion and worry, she stared back with only calm nonchalance. They had stayed that way for a while and Natalia got annoyed, all she wanted was to get out of there not to be stuck having a staring contest with someone who was technically the enemy. She was relieved when he finally spoke up, his voice was angry.

"They were keeping you here" He had said, she noticed it wasn't quite a question and simply nodded.

"How old are you?" he asked with a sigh of disbelief. "Fourteen" was her once again simple reply. He stood with his mouth agape for a while, which was understandable considering she actually looked about sixteen. With a growing impatience for this man she was quick to excuse herself.

"I have some loose ends I need to clear up before I get out of here, one of which includes me setting of a small explosion" She said with a bored drawl creeping its way into her voice "just a small warning in case you thought it was the enemy" with that she dashed around him and ran at full speed towards the door ignoring the captains confused shouts of "What did you say?" and "come back its dangerous!".

She never saw him again until he was on-board the Hellicarrier. He looked the exact same as he had back in the Hydra base and it took all of her skills not to smirk or giggle at the absurdness of working with him, the man who had saved her all those years ago.

**Iron Man (Tony Stark)**

Natalia met Tony Stark when he was about nine. Natalia herself was about sixty but she had the appearance of a twenty-two year old. She was undercover in Stark Industries at the time trying to steal some weapon designs for the Russian government. She was posing as Nancy Robertson, Howard Stark's new assistant. She was trusted with important information including the designs of Howard's newest weapon idea which she copied and had sent back to Russia.

One day she was in her office sorting out papers which required Howard's signature when Howard himself walked into her office unannounced with a young boy trailing behind him. The young boy was standing impossibly straight and had his hands behind his back. Howard practically begged her to look after the boy, winking when he explained that he would make it up to her, she agreed with a flirtatious smile even though on the inside she was groaning.

Howard left leaving the young boy, who seemed both nervous and uncomfortable, standing at her door. She told him to take a seat and read or something as she finished her work, she wasn't a kid person. An hour later she leaned back in her leather chair and sighed with absolute boredom. She swept up all her unfinished work and threw it ungracefully into its holder before turning to Tony and smiling playfully at the concerned boy who clearly thought she was mental.

"You want to do something?" she asked staring at the boy with a strange intensity. Tony scoffed which was unexpected and said "like what, you clearly have work to do, can you really just up and leave?" she smirked at that, the boy clearly had some character.

"Why not?" she answered earning a frown from Tony "We should go to the cinema" she said without waiting for a reply. It was her last day undercover and as far as she cared the boy looked like he needed to have some fun. "Okay" was all he said and so they waltzed out of the building and ended up having a really good time. They went to the cinema and walked out laughing like idiots before they went to eat at a fast food restaurant, which was something both of them hardly ever got to do, she took him back to the office later in the afternoon with only a few minutes to spare before Howard came back to get his son. She told Howard that Tony had behaved as she finished of her work and in return Howard told her that he was serious before as he winked and left the room. As far as the Stark family and company know Nancy was killed in a car accident the next day. Natalia though, returned to Russia with a lot of stolen designs.

Tony Stark failed to remember her when she went undercover as his own assistant; although when she was Nancy she had short brown hair and beauty spot below her eye. But one day when she was undercover as Natalie Tony had said that he wished she was more like his dads old assistant Nancy because she was way more fun. Natasha resisted the urge to say 'why, do you want to go to the cinema or something?'.

**The Hulk (Bruce Banner)**

She doesn't quite know how old she was when she met him, nor does she recall asking for his age. All she knows is that it was before his accident. She was undercover at his lab, posing as a lab assistant, her name was Nicole Renner and she had wavy blonde hair that cascaded past her shoulders. She had been programmed with a lot of information on gamma radiation by the Red Room and was close to being an expert. She was there to find out the possibility of gamma weapons.

She never really saw him around the place, only in the corridors or in the canteen. He was a nice guy, had held the door open for her a few times. She usually thanked him with a smile, peering at him through her thick rimmed glasses, but one day she stopped. He looked a little confused and she smirked at him before she flirtatiously crept towards him and whispered slowly in his ear "you know, you have toilet paper stuck to your shoe". Bruce blushed before he kicked the paper off his foot and turned back to her.

"Well that's slightly embarrassing, my name is Bruce by the way" he held his hand out for her to shake "I'm Nicole Renner, it's nice to meet you" she made herself blush slightly when she shook his hand. "Do you think we could maybe forget about the whole toilet paper thing" he asked with a nervous giggle "sure it's already forgotten, I actually need to ask you something" she said, he frowned at her so she continued "could I get the keys to your lab? Dr Thomson needs the results from the latest weapons test" she was still smiling sweetly and he was quick to hand the keys over. She excused herself and made her way to his lab, she collected the test results and slid them into her purse.

She headed back to Russia the next day after Nicole was apparently hired by a company there. The results she handed back gave the Russian government were used to create a new wave of super weapons which Russia have never used but still keep safe, in case there is an emergency.

Natasha had mixed feeling about going to recruit Banner. She used memories of the old the old him she had met years ago in his lab to try and get mind off the fact that he could turn into a giant green rage monster at any moment. He had the same personality. Impossibly he was now ever more of a nervous wreck, even if for a different reason. She was relieved he didn't recognise her; she doubted he would be happy about her stealing his work.

**Hawkeye (Clint Barton)**

She was on a simple mission the first time she laid her eyes on him, Hawkeye the world's greatest marksman. Her cover was Nadia Raffetto a young Italian with curly brown hair. She was there to seduce and eventually kill an American drugs dealer who had particularly annoyed the Red Room. She had been undercover for two weeks and had the man tightly wrapped around her finger. Her mark had decided to take her to the circus for the second time since she had met him. That time he took her to 'Carson's Carnival of Travelling Wonders' to see Swordsman and Trickshot. She had been more than happy to go again because even though she was cold hearted she enjoyed the colours and fun.

Her mark had gotten them amazing seats and she was able to see everything easily. There were clowns on when she excused herself to go buy a drink and some food. She never was a fan of clown, they were too much fun. The food stall she favoured, which sold cotton candy, was close to the trailers of the carnival's residents. She was walking back to the circus area when she heard groaning, she was curious and couldn't help but go and see what was happening. What she saw was similar to what she expected to see. Three adolescent boys were teasing another teenage boy, they were attacking him pitifully and she was sure she could have kicked their asses when she was seven. They boy being beaten had sandy brown hair and grey eyes. There was something in his eyes that stirred a strange feeling in Natalia, she felt sorry for him. She isn't sure if that is why she did what she did, but when one of three boys raised his fist to hit the younger one she had found herself grabbing his wrist and laughably easily tackling him to the ground. The other two boys ran away whilst she growled in the ear of the boy she had on the ground "If you have any sense you'll get your ass as far away from here as possible". When she let go of the boy he was gone in the blink of an eye.

The younger sandy haired boy, who must have been around fourteen watched her curiously, not sure whether he should be scared or thankful. She is pretty sure he was both. She smiled at the kid and walked away.

She made it back to the circus tent in time for Trickshot and Swordsman; she was impressed with their level of skill. At the end of their act Trickshot introduced his apprentice, she had been surprised when the sandy haired boy walked out with a bow and performed with an incredibly high level of accuracy, it actually made her smile. She walked passed him as she and her mark were leaving, she slipped a note into his back pocket as she did so. The note was short and written on some scrap paper she had in her purse, it read _'you have skill, kid' _and she signed it with a small red hourglass.

**I realise that I seem to jump writing style quite a lot and I'm really sorry, turns out I'm not so good at the whole past tense thing. I'm also sorry if there are any bits where I've skipped to present tense. Anyway I hope you understand the story. I didn't write about Clint not recognising her later because I was thinking about writing a completely different fic for that. Please let me know in the reviews. Constructive criticism is definitely welcome considering how terrible this is.**


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